Clock-and-data-recovery system having a multi-phase clock generator for one or more channel circuits

ABSTRACT

In one embodiment of the invention, a clock-and-data-recovery (CDR) system has a multi-phase clock generator that generates a plurality of phase-offset clock signals and one or more channel circuits, each receiving a (different) input data signal and all of the phase-offset clock signals and generates an output data stream and a recovered clock signal. Each channel circuit has a plurality of data registers (e.g., flip-flops), each receiving the input data signal at its clock input port and a different one of the phase-offset clock signals at its data input port, such that the flip-flop is triggered at each (rising) edge in the input data signal. The channel circuit processes the outputs from the different flip-flops to select an appropriate phase-offset clock signal for use in sampling the input data signal to generate the output data stream, where the recovered clock signal is generated from the selected phase-offset clock signal.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to electronics, and, in particular, toclock-and-data-recovery circuits.

BACKGROUND

In non-clock-forwarded communications systems, data streams aretransmitted to receivers without transmitting separate, distinct clocksignals. In such systems, a receiver can perform clock-and-data-recovery(CDR) processing to recover a clock signal from each data stream, wherethe clock signal is derived based on the timing of the data representedin the data stream. A typical CDR circuit comprises a sampling clockgenerator, such as a phase-locked loop (PLL) or a delay-locked loop(DLL), that generates one or more sampling clocks used to sample thereceived data stream. In some communications systems, a single receivermay receive multiple, different data streams, potentially havingdifferent data rates. Such a receiver will typically have a differentCDR circuit for each different data stream. Implementing multiple CDRcircuits, each with its own sampling clock generator can require toomuch layout area and/or operating power for some integrated circuitapplications.

SUMMARY

In one embodiment, the present invention is a clock-and-data recoverysystem, comprising a clock generator and one or more channel circuits.The clock generator generates a plurality of phase-offset clock signals,and each channel circuit generates an output data stream and a recoveredclock signal based on an input data signal. Each channel circuitcomprises a data for each phase-offset clock signal, a logic circuit,and a data sampler. Each data register generates an output signal basedon the level of the corresponding phase-offset clock signal at atransition in the input data signal. The logic circuit processes theoutput signals from the data registers to select one of the phase-offsetclock signals as a sampling clock signal, and the data sampler samplesthe input data signal based on the sampling clock signal to generate theoutput data stream and generates the recovered clock signal based on thesampling clock signal.

In another embodiment, the present invention is a clock-and-datarecovery system, comprising a clock generator and two or more channelcircuits coupled to the clock generator. The clock generator generates aplurality of phase-offset clock signals. Each channel circuit generatesan output data stream and a recovered clock signal based on an inputdata signal and the plurality of phase-offset clock signals.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other aspects, features, and advantages of the present invention willbecome more fully apparent from the following detailed description, theappended claims, and the accompanying drawings in which like referencenumerals identify similar or identical elements.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a clock-and-data-recovery system, accordingto one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a more-detailed block diagram of one possible implementationof the CDR system of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary timing diagram illustrating the relationshipbetween the input data signal and the sixteen clock signals of FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a clock-and-data-recovery system 100,according to one embodiment of the present invention. CDR system 100 hasa multi-phase clock generator 102 and N CDR channel circuits 104, whereN≧1.

Clock generator 102 generates a multi-phase set of clock signals 106(i.e., multiple versions of a clock signal sequentially separated fromeach other in phase over one clock period by a specified phase-offsetincrement). For example, in one implementation, clock generator 102generates 16 clock signals, each having the same frequency, butseparated in phase from the previous clock signal by about 22.5 degrees.Clock signals 106 are all applied to each CDR channel circuit 104, whichuses the set of clock signals to generate a (different) recovered clocksignal 110 and a (different) output data stream 112 from a corresponding(different) input data signal 108, potentially having different datarates.

FIG. 2 is a more-detailed block diagram of one possible implementationof CDR system 100 of FIG. 1. Although FIG. 2 shows only one CDR channelcircuit 104, the implementation may include other, similar CDR channelcircuits.

In this particular implementation, multi-phase clock generator 102 is adelay-locked loop (DLL) that is capable of selectively generating either16 clock signals (separated by phase-offset increments of about 22.5degree) or 8 clock signals (separated by phase-offset increments ofabout 45 degrees). Clock generator 102 comprises a phasedetector/arithmetic logic unit (PD/ALU) 202 and a delay chain 204 (i.e.,a chain of series-connected delay elements (not shown)), where the valueof 1-bit control signal CLK_WIDTH dictates whether clock generator 102generates 16 clock signals (e.g., CLK_WIDTH=0) or 8 clock signals (e.g.,CLK_WIDTH=1). A received reference clock (REFCLK) is applied to thefirst delay element in delay chain 204, where each delay element in thechain delays the reference clock by an incremental amount of time, whichcorresponds to a reasonably predictable amount of phase for a givenclock rate. Each clock signal 106 corresponds to the output of (adifferent) one of the delay elements in delay chain 204, as selectedusing a corresponding multiplexer (not shown) in delay chain 204. In oneembodiment, the number of delay elements in delay chain 204 and thenumber of clock signals output from delay chain 204 are metal maskprogrammable.

In addition to the reference clock, delay chain 204 receives, fromPD/ALU 202, 16 DelNumber values, each of which dictates the number ofdelay elements in delay chain 204 between a different pair of successiveclock signals 106. Assume, for example, that reference clock REFCLK hasa period of 100 nsec, that each delay element in delay chain 204 delaysthe reference clock by 1 nsec (i.e., corresponding to a phase shift ofabout 3.6 degrees), and that clock generator 102 is configured togenerate 16 clock signals. In that case, the 16 DelNumber values may be(6, 6, 7, 6, 6, 6, 7, 6, 6, 6, 7, 6, 6, 6, 7, 6), where the first of the16 clock signals 106 is selected to be the output from the 6^(th) delayelement in delay chain 204, where that first clock signal corresponds toreference clock REFCLK delayed by 6 nsec, where (6/100)*360 degrees=21.6degrees (which is as close to the desired 22.5 degrees as can beachieved by delay chain 204). The second clock signal 106 would beselected to be the output from the 12^(th) (i.e., 6+6) delay element indelay chain 204, where that second clock signal corresponds to referenceclock REFCLK delayed by 12 nsec, where (12/100)*360 degrees=43.2 degrees(which is as close to the desired 45 degrees as can be achieved by delaychain 204). The third clock signal 106 would be selected to be theoutput from the 19^(th) (i.e., 12+7) delay element in delay chain 204,where that third clock signal corresponds to reference clock REFCLKdelayed by 19 nsec, where (19/100)*360 degrees=68.4 degrees (which is asclose to the desired 67.5 degrees as can be achieved by delay chain204). And so on, for the remaining 13 clock signals 106. Note that thesixteen clock signal 106 would be selected to be the output from the100^(th) (i.e., 6+6+7+6+6+6+7+6+6+6+7+6+6+6+7+6) delay element in delaychain 204, where that sixteenth clock signal corresponds to referenceclock REFCLK delayed by 100 nsec (i.e., one complete 360-degree clockcycle of REFCLK). Note further that, when clock generator 102 isconfigured to generate 8, instead of 16, clock signals, the 8 clocksignals 106 could be generated using (12, 13, 12, 13, 12, 13, 12, 13) asthe 8 DelNumber values, where the eighth clock signal would correspondto reference clock REFCLK delayed by one complete clock cycle. Thevalues used in these examples are for purposes of explanation only;actual values may be larger or smaller.

The last selected clock (i.e., either the sixteenth clock signal or theeighth clock signal, depending on whether clock generator 102 isconfigured to generate 16 or 8 clock signals) is fed back from delaychain 204 as feedback clock signal DelClk to PD/ALU 202, which alsoreceives reference clock REFCLK. PD/ALU 202 generates the phasedifference between REFCLK and DelClk and uses that phase difference toadjust the DelNumber values as necessary to ensure that those two clocksignals are as close to being in phase (i.e., separated by one completeclock cycle of REFCLK) as possible. When those clock signals are inphase (e.g., to within a specified threshold), PD/ALU 202 sets the 1-bitstatus signal MASTER LOCK to a value (e.g., 1) that indicates that clocksignals 106 are valid.

As shown in FIG. 2, CDR channel circuit 104 receives input data signal108 and (up to) 16 clock signals 106, referred to as CLK0-CLK15. CDRchannel circuit 104 has 16 data registers 206 (e.g., flip-flops,although other types of data registers are possible) arranged in twobanks 208 and 210, where input data signal 108 is applied to the clockinput of each flip-flop. In bank 208, each of the first eight clocksignals CLK0-CLK7 is applied to the data input of a different flip-flop.

In addition to eight flip-flops, bank 210 also has a (2×1) multiplexer(mux) 212 for each flip-flop, where one of the second eight clocksignals CLK8-CLK15 is applied to the “0” input of each mux 212 and acorresponding one of the first eight clock signals CLK0-CLK7 is appliedto the mux's “1” input. The output of each mux 212 is applied to thedata input of the corresponding flip-flop 206, where the selection ofwhich received clock signal to apply is dictated by control signalCLK_WIDTH. In particular, if CLK_WIDTH=0, then CDR system 100 isconfigured in its 16-phase mode, and muxes 212 apply the second eightclock signals CLK8-CLK15 to flip-flops 206 of bank 210. If CLK_WIDTH=1,then CDR system 100 is configured in its 8-phase mode, and muxes 212apply the first eight clock signals CLK0-CLK7 to flip-flops 206 of bank210. Note that, in this latter configuration, both the first flip-flop(in bank 208) and the eighth flip-flop (in bank 210) receive clocksignal CLK0, and analogously for clock signals CLK1-CLK7 and the otherseven pairs of flip-flops in banks 208 and 210.

As just described, when CDR system 100 is configured in its 16-phasemode, a different one of the 16 clock signals CLK0-CLK15 is applied tothe data input of a different one of the 16 flip-flops 206, while inputdata signal 108 is applied to the clock input of each flip-flop.Assuming, for example, that flip-flops 206 are triggered by rising edges(in alternative implementations, falling-edge-triggered flip-flops couldbe used), when a rising edge occurs in input data signal 108 (e.g.,corresponding to a data transition from a “0” to a “1”), each flip-flopwill (substantially) simultaneously present the current value of itsreceived clock signal CLKi as its output value Qi.

In general, when reference clock REFCLK (and each clock signal 106) hasa 50% duty cycle, at any given instant (other than those instantscorresponding to clock transitions), the values of half of clock signals106 will be high, and the values of the rest will be low. Moreover,since clock signals CLK0-CLK15 represent a sequence of increasinglyphase-offset clock signals, eight consecutive clock signals 106 will beeither high or low and the rest will be the opposite.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary timing diagram illustrating the relationshipbetween input data signal 108 and the sixteen clock signals CLK0-CLK15.The portion of input data signal 108 shown in FIG. 3 corresponds to abit sequence of (0 1 0 0 1) and has rising transitions at times t1 andt3 and a falling transition at time t2. At time t1, for example, clocksCLK0-CLK2 and CLK11-CLK15 are high and eight consecutive clocksCLK3-CLK10 are low. Since the transition at time t1 is a rising edge, attime t1, all 16 flip-flops will be triggered, the values of flip-flopoutputs Q0-Q2 and Q11-Q15 will be high, and the values of flip-flopoutputs Q3-Q10 will be low. The same will be true at time t3. Note that,since the transition at time t2 is a falling transition, therising-edge-triggered flip-flops will not be triggered, and the Q valueswill not be updated.

Referring again to FIG. 2, the sixteen flip-flop output values Q1-Q15are applied to clock selector logic 214 along with the sixteen clocksignals CLK0-CLK15. Clock selector logic 214 analyzes the 16 Qi valuesto select one of clock signals CLKi as selected clock 216 for input toprocessing block 218. In particular, clock selector logic 214 looks fortransitions in the Q values received from the flip-flops and selects oneof the clock signals CLKi based clock signals corresponding to thattransition. For example, clock selector logic 214 could look for thefirst Q-value transition and then, depending on whether the transitionwas from Q=0 to Q=1 or from Q=1 to Q=0, select an appropriate clocksignal. For example, in the example of FIG. 3, the first Q-valuetransition occurs between CLK2 to CLK3. Since that transition is a1-to-0 transition, clock selector logic 214 selects a clock 180 degreesaway (e.g., CLK11) for use as selected clock 216. If the transition werea 0-to-1 transition, then clock selector logic 214 would select one ofthe clocks corresponding to the transition, rather than looking 180degrees away.

In addition to selected clock 216, processing block 218 receives inputdata signal 108 and control signal BIT_WIDTH. In one implementation,processing block 218 samples input data signal 108 at every rising edgeof selected clock 216 to generate sampled data. In this particularembodiment, processing block 218 is capable of outputting the sampleddata as a serial or parallel data stream, where the parallelism ofoutput data stream 112 is controlled by the value of control signalBIT_WIDTH, such that output data stream 112 can be up to 4 bits wide. Inaddition, processing block 218 has a clock divider that divides selectedclock 216 by the same value dictated by the BIT_WIDTH control signal togenerate recovered clock signal 110 as a divided version of selectedclock 216. By parallelizing the output data and dividing the selectedclock signal, downstream digital logic (e.g., used to decode the outputdata) is able to run at a lower frequency. A first-in, first-out (FIFO)buffer can be used to re-time the data to make chip routing less of anissue.

When CDR system 100 of FIG. 2 is configured in its 8-phase mode, onlyeight different clock signals CLK0-CLK7 are generated by clock generator102 and input to each CDR channel circuit 104. In this case, muxes 212are controlled by CLK_WIDTH to select the “1” inputs for application tothe data inputs of the flip-flops in bank 210. In that case, Q0 and Q8provide substantially redundant information, which clock selector logic214 can use to increase the reliability of its processing. In analternative embodiment, muxes 212 are omitted and the flip-flop outputsQi of bank 210 are ignored by clock selector logic 214 if CDR system 100is configured in its 8-phase mode (i.e., CLK_WIDTH=1).

Since the 8-phase mode uses only eight muxes in delay chain 204, CDRchannel circuit 104 can operate at a higher frequency than during the16-phase mode. In general, when clock generator 102 is implemented as aDLL, as in FIG. 2, the maximum frequency of the clock generator is afunction of the number of phases and the intrinsic delay of each delayelement. For example, if each delay element has a minimum delay of 1 ns,then the maximum frequency of clock generator 102 for the 16-phase modewould be 1/(16 ns) or about 62.5 MHz. For the 8-phase mode, however, themaximum frequency of the clock generator would be 1/(8 ns) or about 125MHz.

In the exemplary timing diagram of FIG. 3, the frequency of input datasignal 108 is the same as the frequencies of clock signals CLK0-CLK15.In general, that need not be true. As a result, clock selector logic 214may need to constantly change which clock signal is used for selectedclock 216.

In some implementations, there are limits placed on which clock signalscan be selected by clock selector logic 214. For example, in onepossible implementation, at each cycle of the control loop, clockselector logic 214 can change the selected clock by at most one clocksignal in either direction from the previously selected clock signal. Ifthe desired change is greater than the specified limit, then the controlloop is not correctly locked to the data, and lock signal LOCK is setlow by clock selector logic 214.

Although the present invention has been described in the context of aCDR system in which a multi-phase DLL is used to generate thephase-offset clock signals, in other embodiments, other types ofmulti-phase clock generators can be used, including multi-phasevoltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs). Furthermore; although the presentinvention has been described in the context of a CDR system capable ofgenerating either 8 or 16 different clock signals, other embodiments maygenerate other numbers of phase-offset clock signals, including only onenumber of clock signals or more than two different numbers of clocksignals.

While the exemplary embodiments of the present invention have beendescribed with respect to processes of circuits, including possibleimplementation as a single integrated circuit, a multi chip module, asingle card, or a multi card circuit pack, the present invention is notso limited. As would be apparent to one skilled in the art, variousfunctions of circuit elements may also be implemented as processingblocks in a software program. Such software may be employed in, forexample, a digital signal processor, micro controller, or generalpurpose computer.

Unless explicitly stated otherwise, each numerical value and rangeshould be interpreted as being approximate as if the word “about” or“approximately” preceded the value of the value or range.

It will be further understood that various changes in the details,materials, and arrangements of the parts which have been described andillustrated in order to explain the nature of this invention may be madeby those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of theinvention as expressed in the following claims.

1. A clock-and-data recovery (CDR) system, comprising: a clock generatoradapted to generate a plurality of phase-offset clock signals; and oneor more channel circuits, each channel circuit adapted to generate anoutput data stream and a recovered clock signal based on an input datasignal, wherein each channel circuit comprises: a data register for eachphase-offset clock signal, the data register adapted to generate anoutput signal based on the level of the corresponding phase-offset clocksignal at a transition in the input data signal; a logic circuit adaptedto process the output signals from the data registers to select one ofthe phase-offset clock signals as a sampling clock signal; and a datasampler adapted to sample the input data signal based on the samplingclock signal to generate the output data stream and generate therecovered clock signal based on the sampling clock signal.
 2. Theinvention of claim 1, further comprising a clock divider adapted todivide the sampling clock signal by a specified divisor value togenerate the recovered clock signal.
 3. The invention of claim 2,wherein the data sampler is adapted to generate the output data streamas a parallelized data stream.
 4. The invention of claim 1, wherein:each data register is an edge-triggered flip-flop, having a data inputport, a clock input port, and a data output port; each flip-flop isconnected to receive the corresponding phase-offset clock signal at itsdata input port and the input data signal at its clock input port; andeach flip-flop is adapted to present values of the phase-offset clocksignal at its data output port at certain transitions in the input datasignal.
 5. The invention of claim 4, wherein the flip-flops aretriggered by rising edges in the input data signal.
 6. The invention ofclaim 1, wherein the clock generator is a delay-locked loop (DLL). 7.The invention of claim 6, wherein: the DLL comprises a phase detectorand a delay chain; the plurality of phase-offset clock signals areoutput from different selected delay elements along the delay chain; andthe phase detector is adapted to control the selection of the differentdelay elements based on a phase difference between a received referenceclock and one of the phase-offset clock signals.
 8. The invention ofclaim 7, wherein the number of delay elements in the delay chain and thenumber of phase-offset clock signals output from the delay chain aremetal mask programmable.
 9. The invention of claim 1, wherein the clockgenerator is adapted to be configured to generate at least two differentnumbers of phase-offset clock signals.
 10. The invention of claim 9,wherein: the data registers are configured in at least two banks of dataregisters; a first bank of data registers is adapted to receive a firstsubset of the phase-offset clock signals; and a second bank of dataregisters further comprises a multiplexer for each data register,wherein: the multiplexer is adapted to receive a phase-offset clocksignal of the first subset and a corresponding phase-offset clock signalof a second subset of the phase-offset clock signals; and themultiplexer is adapted to provide one of the received phase-offset clocksignals to the corresponding data register depending on whether theclock generator is configured to generate a first number or a secondnumber of phase-offset clock signals.
 11. The invention of claim 1,comprising two or more of the channel circuits.
 12. A method forperforming clock-and-data recovery (CDR), the method comprising:generating a plurality of phase-offset clock signals; and generating anoutput data stream and a recovered clock signal based on an input datasignal by: generating, for each phase-offset clock signal, an outputsignal based on the level of the corresponding phase-offset clock signalat a transition in the input data signal; processing the output signalsto select one of the phase-offset clock signals as a sampling clocksignal; sampling the input data signal based on the sampling clocksignal to generate the output data stream; and generating the recoveredclock signal based on the sampling clock signal.
 13. The invention ofclaim 12, wherein the sampling clock signal is divided by a specifieddivisor value to generate the recovered clock signal.
 14. The inventionof claim 13, wherein the output data stream is generated as aparallelized data stream.
 15. The invention of claim 12, wherein: theoutput signals are generated by a plurality of data-registers; each dataregister is an edge-triggered flip-flop, having a data input port, aclock input port, and a data output port; each flip-flop receives thecorresponding phase-offset clock signal at its data input port and theinput data signal at its clock input port; and each flip-flop presentsvalues of the phase-offset clock signal at its data output port atcertain transitions in the input data signal.
 16. The invention of claim15, wherein the flip-flops are triggered by rising edges in the inputdata signal.
 17. The invention of claim 12, further comprising selectingwhether to generate a first number or a second number of phase-offsetclock signals, wherein the selected number of phase-offset clock signalsis generated.
 18. Apparatus for performing clock-and-data recovery(CDR), the apparatus comprising: means for generating a plurality ofphase-offset clock signals; and means for generating an output datastream and a recovered clock signal based on an input data signal by:generating, for each phase-offset clock signal, an output signal basedon the level of the corresponding phase-offset clock signal at atransition in the input data signal; processing the output signals toselect one of the phase-offset clock signals as a sampling clock signal;sampling the input data signal based on the sampling clock signal togenerate the output data stream; and generating the recovered clocksignal based on the sampling clock signal.
 19. A clock-and-data recovery(CDR) system, comprising: a clock generator adapted to generate aplurality of phase-offset clock signals; and two or more channelcircuits coupled to the clock generator, each channel circuit adapted togenerate an output data stream and a recovered clock signal based on aninput data signal and the plurality of phase-offset clock signals. 20.The invention of claim 19, wherein the input data signals associatedwith at least two of the channel circuits have different data rates. 21.The invention of claim 19, wherein the clock generator is adapted to beconfigured to generate at least two different numbers of phase-offsetclock signals.